Hurricane Gustav Follows Me

Since I realize that I should attempt to not give crime a "leg up" ... I didn't feel the need to announce the specific dates of our trip to Texas. But, I will announce I'm back. Our little house is safe and sound and Lubbock is asleep. He's such a good traveler. I've taken him on five (I think) trips so far and he's been the most well behaved child on the plane every time!

(By the way, I should really think about getting rid of my Dewayne Wayne-style sunglass clips! I completely forgot I had them on until after I took all the pictures this day ... I just can't be bothered to get prescription sunglasses when the $5 cheapy clips work so well! They sure don't make for attractive pictures, though. And yes, that is a big bruise on his forehead. He thought he could walk ... no, run ... through the door the evening before vacation.)

Kevin took the whole week off and we left for Texas on Saturday. My mom was here for the end of the week and traveled on our flight with us. That was really nice to have three people to pass him between, but it wasn't really needed. He fell asleep about five minutes after we took off and slept on Kevin's lap the whole time. We landed and said good-bye to my mom and hopped into Kevin's parent's car. We took the two hour drive to Bullard, Texas. Bullard is on Lake Palastine, near Tyler. They have a lake house out there. We just spent most of the time relaxing. We were able to get one boat ride in, but then Hurricane Gustav made his presence known. We stayed in Bullard for the first day of storms and decided to head back to Plano a day early to go shopping.

Lubbock scored a pair of lime green Crocs. He's in love with them and after I put them on him he walks around in them and looks down and stares or sits down and smiles at them. He likes putting his fingers in them to touch his feet.

The best part of the whole trip was just getting to relax. I know Kevin's parents appreciate getting to see Lubbock and play with him. Poppi Buddy liked giving Lubbock dessert ... after every meal. Apparently a rice krispie treat immediately following breakfast is something only a grandpa can get away with. Grammy Mary liked teaching Lubbock little moves like the Home-Alone-both-hands-on-the-face-ala-Macauley-Culkin move. By this morning, when he saw her, he was doing it before she even said 'good morning.'

The weather today was perfect in Texas and our flight was only 15 minutes delayed. But, when we landed, Hurricane Gustav was waiting for us. We just saw on the news that our town got 3.16" of rain! And, of course, there's Chicagoland traffic. I think it took us longer to drive home from the airport than it did to fly from Dallas to Chicago.

We made it home in time, however, for a little bit of football watching ... ah ... football. It's that special time of year when I can feel completely justified to sit on the couch for an entire weekend and not feel one bit guilty. I've never been much of a Cowboys fan, but the longer I live in Illinois, the more I secretly cheer for them to do well. I don't think I'll wear any sort of Cowboys gear, but I am softening toward them.

Then we watched the McCain speech. I'm so excited for this election. Maybe excited isn't the right term. I'm interested in discussing the issues, but everyone I know pretty much feels the same as I do. I feel like my life would be made more difficult if Obama were to be elected and that McCain has the right ideas about how to make changes that will benefit those who want to help themselves. (My mom is a self-proclaimed socialist, so she would be completely stoked if Obama won!) We're placing our orders for the McCain/Palin yard signs tomorrow. I'm ordering two since I have several die-hard Dems on the street. I even thought about investing the $100 in a 3' x 6' yard sign, but decided that might be going a bit far!

Well, I'm going to get to bed and hope that Lubbock will sleep through the night ... something he did not do the entire vacation!